Nablus – Ma’an – Dozens of chainsaw-wielding Israeli settlers cut down more than 150 olive trees in to the northern West Bank village of Burin, south of Nablus on Monday.

The assault came a few days before Palestinian farmers throughout the country begin harvesting their olives.

According to Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian official in charge of monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank, dozens of Israelis from the settlement Yitzhar raided fields in the area of Khallat Siwar between the villages of Huwwara and Burin and cut down more than 150 olive trees using chainsaws.

Daghlas labeled the settlers’ attack as “criminal act” calling on human right groups to take action to stop Israeli settlers’ assaults against the Palestinians and their property.